An update from Thanksgiving to Christmas

We finally made it out of Elkhart Indiana on December 9 at night after they finished our RV remodel.  One that was supposed to take 2 weeks took a month.  A cabinet that was supposed to be one priced turned out to be 3 times more.  They were supposed to install it in 2 hours and it took 3 days.  Okay enough of my ranting.  We're done finally and head out after a little snow falls the previous days, south to Indianapolis.  Not a great town in my opinion but we wanted to do the INDY 500 museum.  So we stopped and became WALMARTIANS for a night.  Which means we stay in a Walmart parking lot so we don't have to find an RV park and pay just to sleep.  Hey we can live self contained for a good 3-5 days if we have water.

Anyway finished in Indianapolis and travel south to Louisville, Kentucky.  A town rich with history and beautiful architecture.  We truly loved this place.  We thought this was where Tom's Great Grandfather had lived but after some research at the Library come to find out he actually loved in Newport which is north and east of where we were.  It was interesting to do some genealogical work on finding out more about his family though.

We visited Churchill Downs, Kentucky Derby Museum, The Brown Hotel, and Jim Beam distillery.  I highly recommend all of these especially Jim Beam because if you do a tour you get 2 shots after the tour of special label Jim Beam.  On the cold day we were there warmed us right up.  

Another perk while we were there was visiting with a long ago friend of mine from Jr high and high school, she calls Louisville home.

After being there for a week we heading South yesterday toward Nashville.  We thought this would be a good place for Christmas.  Staying at Walmart again we dropped anchor and took off to look around a little and found this place to be a bit of a tourist trap.  All the shows are booked or dark for Christmas so there's not much to do.  So we will be taking off here in a few hours and then heading south and east to Chattanooga then on to Atlanta.

Hopefully more to update you all on with some pictures when we get to Florida.

Still in Indiana...What joy.

Just as the title says we are still in Indiana.  The weather is turning rainy and cold with a chance of snow showers this week.   The advantage to this place we are at is that it has a large area our dogs can run around in and explore.  We can't just let them run around, even though it's fenced, because there is a gate which stays open.  So we watch them but they can be off leash.  For anyone who know me you know how important our kids.

Anyway, we had a great Thanksgiving and hope yours was terrific too.  I found a place in South Bend Indiana to have dinner.  This is a picture of it.

It's a 40 room mansion which has been an eating establishment for over 100 years.  We had dinner upstairs in one what we will call guest bedrooms.  It was beautiful and we sat  right next to the fireplace.  The buffet was traditional Thanksgiving.  A gem to find in this area. 

We wrangled Best Buy on Friday to find a new surround sound and got out of there before any incidents.  People really get enraged at this time of year.  Brings out the best and worst in people.    Which I truly don't understand all the gifts and stuff people have to buy just to put it in storage and never use it.  A gift of time spent and a great conversation would suffice for me.  

Now we have spent the weekend doing our own projects for this remodel.  Installed new TV's, took out old electronics, fixed faucets,  and partially repaired leveling jack switches.  I saw partially because we can't get two to work and it is raining so no laying under the bus right now. 

In the hunt for organic food which my diet requires to stay away from corn I have found it difficult to find.  This is making for challenges as we travel.  But we make the best of it. 

Until next time friends...Be well. 

Turkey day in Indiana ??? Who knew !!!

Currently we are in Elkhart, Indiana, a small town in the extreme north part of the state.  We are literally 3 miles from Michigan.    Getting some remodeling done to the coach.  Taking out some old putting in some new.  It's cold, rainy and some snow is coming.

Didn't see spending Thanksgiving in Indiana but if that's what happens we roll with it.  We have a place to eat tomorrow which is in an old historical house just east of Notre Dame.  Really looking forward to that.   There's not much else to update on at this point.  Elkhart is kind of a slow paced place.  Lot's of Amish riding around in their buggies.  Kind of neat but makes for a little traffic jam on a two lane highway.

Be well friends.
Happy Thanksgiving
Lorraine, Tom and the kids.....Coffee, Sam, Kona and Circles.

Sorry a little in between update

We stopped in the Des Moines area of Iowa prior to going to Illinois.  This is where my family is from.  I have a wonderful Uncle and Aunt to let us stay at their home, (actually in the alley behind it).  They hooked us up to water and power and we did just great.

Spending a week there to visit my extended family was wonderful.  In addition we got to see my Mom before she left for her new home in California.  Getting up there in her years (83) she has some memory loss and needs help.

We got to see some family on my father's side and meet up with a cousin who I am pleased to be chatting with now via messages on Facebook.  All in all a great trip.  Even got to go to the bakery in town and pig out on pastry.  I will be working out extra to get rid of.....

Cooling our heels in Colorado

We arrived in Colorado around Oct 9th.  Had a bit of a hick up in Wyoming so we had to leave a little early.   Our generator stopped working properly and since we were dry camping, which means we didn't have hook ups where we were it was necessary to get to a repair shop.  So we packed up and headed out on a trip through Wyoming south to Colorado just East of Denver.

The generator was a simple repair and maintenance so we were good to go.  Found a great park in the middle of the city called Cherry Creek State park.  It was beautiful, they had a dog park for the girls to run and play in stream.  I probably loved it more then they did.   We stayed in Colorado until Nov 2nd so we could hang out with Tom's adopted son Kirk, who was a childhood friend of Tom's son Pete.  It was great to see him.  Kirk decorates for Halloween and has a haunted house for the neighborhood kids.  We dressed up to scare the kids.  Some cried, some loved it, and some thought we were crazy.  All in all it was fun.

I am dressed as a scary mime with my lips sewn shut.  I pulled the kids in from the street and led them to the haunt.

Tom was a dead zombie surgeon.  He did a great job in his make up.

Kirk sat in the box and remained still until kids walked by and then he grabbed them.

The scary guys horsing around.

 We got some snow while we were in there.  An early storm brought about 8" of snow one night.  It was wonderful from my stand point being a California girl.  I am sure the locals hated it coming so early

As a bonus I was able see a long lost friend from High School who I had not seen since graduation.  It was so fun to see her and meet her wonderful family.  We spent an afternoon with them and got to catch up on all that has happened to us since high school.

After our lengthy stay in Colorado we started heading East.....

The Wyoming Leg of the Adventure

I am in love with Wyoming.  This is such a beautiful place.  If you have not come to Yellowstone, The Grand Tetons or Jackson Hole Wyoming you must make a trip here.

During our time in Cody, Wyoming we visited Yellowstone, the first visit we left at 6:30 in the morning and drove to the North end of the park from the East side traveled south through the park.  This leg took us about 12 hours with all the stops for photos on the way.  The temps in the park when we arrived were a chilly 23 degrees.  Once in the park we saw the Bison and a Bald Eagle.

It was overwhelming the beauty and unspoiled land.  We were a bit disappointed in the burn areas which looked bad.  From what we are to understand lightning strikes cause the forests to burn and the park service allows it to burn itself out.  Which then creates new habitats for animals and replenishes the soils.  In addition, there are seed pods from the trees which cannot open without intense heat and the fires allows these pods to open and then new trees sprout up.   We finally got back to the RV around 9:00 p.m. and opted to take the next day off because we were so tired.

In town we found a cute little Italian Restaurant which was fabulous and family owned.  The owner was an old Rodeo guy.  We sat next to two guys who just been out hunting Elk.  (Darn they didn't get one) Sorry that's me the Vegetarian talking.  Anyway, we started talking to them and it turns out the one guy lived in Torrance and just moved to Arizona, small world.

During our time in Cody we also did the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.  A must see for anyone in the area.  It will take you 2 days to really go through it and see everything.  There is an Indian heritage wing, Yellowstone wing and one wing with over 3500 guns.   It was amazing.

Here's the link:  http://www.bbhc.org/

After a second day in Yellowstone we were truly exhausted but saw the beautiful Geysers and bubbling sulfur pools.  It truly made me understand how alive our Earth is.

We packed up and moved to a campground in the southern part of the Grand Tetons, named Gros Ventre  (pronounced Gro Von)  It is absolutely beautiful.  The leaves are changing to the colors of Fall. The following pictures are from the area around our campsite and 50 yards from us is a river.  As you can see there are few campers here and when people are here the sites are far apart, so lots of space.  Downside is it's primitive camping, which means we are self contained and have to go dump our tanks about every 3 days and fill up the water tank.  In addition we are running on a generator which uses diesel fuel from our tank.  We might have to go into town to get more fuel.  It is so worth the little bit of inconvenience to stay here.

The park is full of photographers who go out like us and do photography in the morning and evening.   When we drive down the road when you see a group of cars along the road it's usually an animal in the area and there are dozens of camera clicking away.  This is where professional photographers and amateur picture takers all band together to get that perfect shot.

Now we are running around getting moose, bear and elk shots to post.  This adventure is truly a gift.  One I know we will treasure forever.  We hope you are enjoying some of these blog posts and pictures.  I am trying to get things put on as I can.  Right now our connection is a little sketchy but we're dealing with it.  

More to come...

Yellowstone and Gran Teton animal and Geyser shots

Click on the link below for a slide show of some of the current pictures Tom and I have taken.  This first photos are from Yellowstone and the photos of the moose are in our campground in the Grand Tetons. More photos to come !!!!

https://picasaweb.google.com/100518153875957627148/Yellowstone?authkey=Gv1sRgCNzC892atMmyyQE#slideshow/5656031266964118290